What Was Your First Coin Book?

As I go into my third decade of coin collecting, I like looking back at the books that helped to build my core numismatic knowledge. Mind you, I began collecting coins at the age of 11, and in 1992 the readily accessible commercial form of the internet as we know it now simply didn’t exist. It certainly didn’t for me anyway – my household wouldn’t score it’s first computer until a few years later, when I was 14 years old. Even then, I was relegated to surfing the web on a 56k dial-up modem with text-only display. So, books and magazines were my main sources of numismatic knowledge for the fledgling years of my adventure with coins!

The first numismatic book my parents ever bought me was written by the late, great Margo Russell and was entitled Start Collecting Coins. It featured a blister pack containing a handful of uncirculated foreign coins, which immediately launched my curiosity about the coins I couldn’t find in my domestic United States pocket change. My first pricing book came a few weeks later, when my parents purchased the October 1992 edition of Edmund’s United States Coin Prices; this little blue book boasted a gorgeous photo of an 1804 Draped Bust Dollar, a coin I immediately fell in love with and decided I must have someday. When I realized the coin, then worth several hundred thousand dollars (no coin had publicly sold for $1 million or more at that time), was all but an impossible dream for me, I lowered the bar some to acquiring any Draped Bust Dollar. I did about 20 years later (and, no, it’s definitely not an 1804 Draped Bust Dollar!).

I wouldn’t own my first copy of A Guide Book of United States Coins until 1994, when I received a copy of this annual publication famously dubbed “The Red Book” for my 13^th birthday. Suffice it to say, this book provided me with an incredible source of basic knowledge on many fronts, and I still to this day recommend any collector begin their numismatic journey with a contemporary edition of A Guide Book of United States Coins, a volume that has only grown in size and scope since I received my first edition all those years ago.

Finally, there was my first “adult” book on coin collecting, The Coin Collector’s Survival Manual, by Scott A. Travers. I received this book as a gift from my parents for my 14^th birthday, and it was the first reference I had ever read to that point that really taught me the ins and outs of buying and selling coins. This title has undergone many revisions since I first held my then-current third edition, which introduced me to the concepts of investing in coins, grading coins at a high level, watching out for fraudsters, and learning the core concepts of being an active market player.

My numismatic library has grown by leaps and bounds since, and even in this era of endless information right at our fingertips I still frequently refer to my coin books. Of course, this may beg the question: what was your first coin book? And, if you don’t have any yet, which one will you choose first? No matter where you are on your numismatic journey, I hope you never stop quenching your thirst for knowledge and always hold on tight to the old numismatic adage: buy the book before the coin!